Mind-Control by CIA
Mind-Control by CIA
Mind-Control by CIA
both sides, the war spurred furious efforts to create a "truth drug" for use
in interrogating prisoners. General William "Wild Bill" Donovan, director of
the OSS, tasked his crack team -- including Dr. Winifred Overhulser, Dr.
Edward Strecker, Harry J. Anslinger and George White -- to modify human
perception and behavior through chemical means; their "medicine cabinet"
included scopolamine, peyote, barbiturates, mescaline, and marijuana. (This
research had its amusing side: Donovan's "psychic warriors" conducted many
extensive and expensive trials before deciding that the best method of
administering tetrahydrocannibinol, the active ingredient in marijuana, was
via the cigarette. Any jazz musician could have told them as much[15].)
Simultaneously, the notorious NAZI doctors at Dachau experimented with
mescaline as a means of eliminating the victim's will to resist. Jews, slavs,
gypsies, and other "Untermenschen" in the camp were surreptitiously slipped the
drug; later, mescaline was combined with hypnosis[16]. The results of these
tests were made available to the United States after the War. [cf. Operation
PAPERCLIP, which transferred thousands of German and Japanese intelligence
researchers directly into the U.S. intelligence community. "Our Germans are
BETTER than their Germans!" - DR. STRANGELOVE -jpg]
In 1947, the Navy conducted the first known post-war mind control program,
Project CHAPTER, which continued the drug experiments. Decades later,
journalists and investigators still haven't uncovered much information about
this project -- or, indeed, about any of the military's other excursions into
this field. We know that the Army eventually founded operations THIRD CHANCE
and DERBY HAT; other project names remain mysterious, though the existence of
these programs is unquestionable.
The newly-formed CIA plunged into this cesspool in 1950, with Project
BLUEBIRD, rechristened ARTICHOKE in 1951. To establish a "cover story" for
this research, the CIA funded a propaganda effort designed to convince the
world that the Communist Bloc had devised insidious new methods of re-shaping
the human will; the CIA's own efforts could therefore, if exposed, be explained
as an attempt to "catch up" with Soviet and Chinese work. The primary promoter
of this "line" was one Edward Hunter, a CIA contract employee operating undercover as a journalist, and, later, a prominent member of the John Birch
society. (Hunter was an OSS veteran of the China theatre -- the same spawning
grounds which produced Richard Helms, Howard Hunt, Mitch WerBell, Fred
Chrisman, Paul Helliwell and a host of other noteworthies who came to
dominate that strange land where the worlds of intelligence and right-wing
extremism meet[17].) Hunter offered "brainwashing" as the explanation for the
numerous confessions signed by American prisoners of war during the Korean War
and (generally) UN-recanted upon the prisoners' repatriation. These confessions alleged that the United States used germ warfare in the Korean conflict,
a claim which the American public of the time found impossible to accept. Many
years later, however, investigative reporters discovered that Japan's germ
warfare specialists (who had wreaked incalculable terror on the conquered
Chinese during WWII) had been mustered into the American national security
apparat -- and that the knowledge gleaned from Japan's horrifying germ
warfare experiments probably WAS used in Korea, just as the "brainwashed"
soldiers had indicated[18]. Thus, we now know that the entire brainwashing
scare of the 1950s constituted a CIA hoax perpetrated upon the American
public: CIA deputy director Richard Helms admitted as much when, in 1963,
he told the Warren Commission that Soviet mind control research consistently
lagged years behind American efforts[19].
When the CIA's mind control program was transferred from the Office of
Security to the Technical Services Staff (TSS) in 1953, the name changed
again -- to MKULTRA[20]. Many consider this wide-ranging "octopus" project -whose tentacles twined through the corridors of numerous universities and
around the necks of an army of scientists -- the most ominous operation in
CIA's catalogue of atrocity. Through MKULTRA, the Agency created an umbrella
program of a positively Joycean scope, designed to ferret out all possible
means of invading what George Orwell once called "the space between our ears"
(Later still, in 1962, mind control research was transferred to the Office
of Research and Development; project cryptonyms remain unrevealed[21].)
What was studied? Everything -- including hypnosis, conditioning, sensory
deprivation, drugs, religious cults, microwaves, psychosurgery, brain implants,
and even ESP. When MKULTRA "leaked" to the public during the great CIA
investigations of the 1970s, public attention focused most heavily on drug
experimentation and the work with ESP[22]. Mystery still shrouds another area
of study, the area which seems to have most interested ORD: psychoelectronics.
IMPLANTS
... a device known as a "stimoceiver," invented in the late '50searly '60s by a neuroscientist named Jose Delgado. The stimoceiver is a
miniature depth electrode which can receive and transmit electronic signals
over FM radio waves. By stimulating a correctly-positioned stimoceiver, an
outside operator can wield a surprising degree of control over the subject's
responses.
The most famous example of the stimoceiver in action occurred in a Madrid
bull ring. Delgado "wired" the bull before stepping into the ring, entirely
unprotected. Furious for gore, the bull charged toward the doctor -- then
stopped, just before reaching him. The technician-turned-toreador had halted
the animal by simply pushing a button on a black box, held in the hand[24].
Delgado's PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND: TOWARD A PSYCHOCIVILISED SOCIETY[25]
remains the sole, full-length, popularly-written work on intracerebral implants
and electronic stimulation of the brain (ESB). (The book's ominous title and
unconvincing philosophical rationales for mass mind control prompted an
unfavorable public reaction -- which may have deterred other researchers from
publishing on this theme for a general audience.) While subsequent work has
long since superceded the techniques described in this book, Delgado's
achievements were seminal. His animal and human experiments clearly demonstrate that the experimenter can electronically induce emotions and behavior:
Under certain conditions, the extremes of temperament -- rage, lust, fatigue,
etc. -- can be elicited by an outside operator as easily as an organist might
call forth a C-major chord.
Delgado writes: "Radio stimulation of different points in the amygdala and
hippocampus in the four patients produced a variety of effects, including
pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings,
super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses."[26] The evocative
phrase "colored vision" clearly indicates remotely-induced hallucination; we
will detail later how these hallucinations may be "controlled" by an outside
operator.
Speaking in 1966 -- and reflecting research undertaken years previous -Delgado asserted that his experiments "support the distasteful conclusion that
motion, emotion, and behavior can be directed by electrical forces and that
humans can be controlled like robots by push buttons."[27] He even prophesied
a day when brain control could be turned over to non-human operators, by
establishing two-way radio communication between the implanted brain and a
computer[28].
Of one experimental subject, Delgado notes that "the patient expressed the
successive sensations of fainting, fright and floating around. These
'floating' feelings were repeatedly evoked on different days by stimulation
of the same point..."[29]
...
In a fascinating series of experiments, Delgado attached the stimoceiver
to the tympanic membrane, thereby transforming the ear into a sort of microphone. An assistant would whisper "How are you?" into the ear of a suitably
"fixed" cat, and Delgado could hear the words over a loudspeaker in the next
room. The application of this technology to the spy trade should be readily
apparent. According to Victor Marchetti, The Agency once attempted a highlysophisticated extension of this basic idea, in which radio implants were
attached to a cat's cochlea, to facilitate the pinpointing of specific
conversations, freed from extraneous surrounding noises[31]. Such "advances"
rhythms were noted, which are particularly important for our present purposes:
theta (4-7 cycles per second), a hypnogogic state, and delta (.5 to 3.5 cycles
per second), generally found in sleeping subjects[65].
The hemi-synch -- and related mind-machines -- can produce alpha or theta
waves, on demand, according to the operator's wishes. A suitably-entrained
brain is much more responsive to suggestion, and is even likely to experience
vivid hallucinations.
...
There's more than one way to entrain a brain. Michael Hutchison's excellent
book MEGA BRAIN details the author's personal experiences with many such
devices -- the Alpha-stim, TENS, the Synchro-energizer, Tranquilite, etc. He
recounts dazzling, Dali-esque hallucinations, as a result of using this mindexpanding technology; moreover, he offers a seductive argument that these
devices may represent a true breakthrough in consciousness-control, thereby
fulfilling the dashed dream of the hallucinogenic '60s.
I wish to avoid a knee-jerk Luddite response to these fascinating wonderboxes. At the same time, I recognize the dangers involved. What about the
possibility of an outside operator literally "changing our minds" by altering
our brainwaves without our knowledge or permission? If these machines can
induce a hypnotic state, what's to stop a skilled hypnotist from making use
of this state?
Granted, most of these devices require some physical interaction with the
subject. But a tool called the Bio-Pacer can, according to its manufacturer,
produce a number of mood altering frequencies -- WITHOUT attachment to the
subject. Indeed, the Bio-Pacer III (a high-powered version) can affect an
entire room. This device costs $275, according to the most recent price
sheet available[66]. What sort of machine might $27,500 buy? Or $275,000?
What effects, what ranges might a million-dollar machine be capable of?
The military certainly has that sort of money.
And they're certainly interested in this sort of technology, according to
Michael Hutchison. His interview with an informant named Joseph Light elicited
some particularly provocative revelations. According to Light:
There are important elements in the scientific community,
powerful people, who are very much interested in these areas...
but they have to keep most of their work secret. Because as
soon as they start to publish some of these sensitive things,
they have problems in their lives. You see, they work on
research grants, and if you follow the research being done,
you find that as soon as these scientists publish something
about this, their research funds are cut off. There are areas
in bioelectric research where very simple techniques and
devices can have mind-boggling effects. Conceivably, if you
have a crazed person with a bit of a technical background, he
can do a lot of damage[67].
This last statement is particularly evocative. In 1984, a violent neo-NAZI
group called The Order (responsible for the murder of talk-show host Alan Berg)
established contact with two government scientists engaged in clandestine
research to project chemical imbalances and render targeted individuals docile
via certain frequencies of electronic waves. For $100,000 the scientists were
willing to deliver this information[68].
Thus, at least one group of crazed individuals almost got the goods.
WAVE YOUR BRAIN GOODBYE
Every Senator and Congressional representative has a "wavie" file. So do
many state representatives. Wavies have even pled their case to private
institutions such as the Christic Institute[69].
And who are the wavies?
They claim to be victims of clandestine bombardment with non-ionizing
radiation -- or microwaves. They report sudden changes in psychological
states, alteration of sleep patterns, intracerebral voices and other sounds,
and physiological effects. Most people never realize how many wavies there are
testimony -- and how reliable can such testimony be, especially in light of the
fact that one purpose of MKULTRA was to induce insanity? Anyone asserting that
he was victimized by the program might well be seeking an extrinsic excuse for
his own psychopathology. If you say that you are a manufactured madman, you
were probably mad to begin with: Catch 22.
When John Marks wrote THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE" he received
numerous letters from people insisting that they had been drugged, "waved," or
otherwise abused by the CIA or the military. Most of these communications went
directly into his crank file. Perhaps many deserved that destination; I know
of at least one that did not[94].
Marks did, however, devote much attention to Val Orlikov, a former "patient"
of perhaps the most notorious figure in the annals of American medical crime:
Dr. Ewen Cameron, a CIA-funded scientist heading the Allan Memorial
Institute at McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Cameron, a highly-respected
mental health researcher[95], experimented with a technique he called "psychic
driving," a brainwashing program which involved inflicting upon a subject an
endless tape loop blaring selected messages, 16-to-24 hours a day, combined
with massive electroshock and LSD. The project's "guinea pigs" were patients
who had come to Allan Memorial with relatively minor psychological complaints.
Cameron's experiments failed and his theories were discredited, which may
explain why the CIA and its apologists now feel relatively comfortable
discussing the Frankensteinian efforts at Allan Memorial, as opposed to more
successful work elsewhere.
Orlikov's testimony has received much respectful attention from those
writers who have examined MKULTRA, and correctly so. When I studied the files
at the National Security Archives, I was particularly keen to read her original
letters to John Marks, for these pages had led to the unmasking of an
especially heinous CIA project. The letters, interestingly enough, proved just
as vague, disjointed, and bizarre as similar correspondence which researchers
routinely dismiss. Orlikov can't be blamed for the hazy nature of her
recollections; a certain amount of fog is to be expected, given the nature of
the crime perpetrated against her. The important point is that her story,
ultimately, was found to be true. All of which leads me to wonder: Why did
HER claims prompt investigation when those of others prompt only dismissal?
Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that Orlikov's husband became a Canadian
Member of Parliament. Any victims of CIA experimentation who wish to be taken
seriously ought, perhaps, first make sure to marry well.
Of course, we can easily forgive previous writers and readers whose
researches into MKULTRA have been biased in favor of complacency[96]. But we
can't let this natural prejudice cripple our present investigation. Let us
examine, then, a few of the "horror stories" from the mind control literature ..
. .
PALLE HARDRUP'S "GUARDIAN ANGEL"
As mentioned previously, I have not delved much into the subject of hypnosis
in this paper -- primarily because of space and time limitations, but also
because discussions of the possibilities of hypnosis PER SE tend to cloud the
issue of its use in conjunction with the above-mentioned electronic techniques.
Obviously, however, hypnosis is a major weapon in the mind controller's
armament; in a forthcoming full-length work, I intend to deal with this subject
at much greater length.
Needless to say, one of the primary objectives of MKULTRA and related
projects was to determine whether one could hypnotically induce someone to
commit an anti-social act. This possibility remains one of the most hotlydebated issues in hypnosis, for conventional wisdom asserts that no individual
can be hypnotized to commit an action which violates his interior moral code.
Martin Orne, editor of the presitigious INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND
EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS agrees with this axiom[97], and he is in a position to
codify much of the established view on this topic. Orne, however, is a
veteran of MKULTRA, and furthermore seems to have lied -- at least in his
original communications -- to author John Marks about his witting involvement
ARTICHOKE; it doesn't require much imagination to see how this case could have
served as a model to the scientists researching those and subsequent projects.
SCREEN MEMORY
According to declassified documents in the Marks files, a major difficulty
faced by the MKULTRA researchers concerned the "disposal problem." What to do
with the victims of CIA-sponsored electroshock, hypnosis, and drug experimentation? The Company resorted to distressing, but characteristic, tactics: They
disposed of their human guinea pigs by incarcerating them in insane asylums, by
performing icepick lobotomies, and by ordering "executive actions."[103]
A more sophisticated solution had to be found. One of the goals of the
CIA's mind control efforts was the erasure of memory via hypnosis (and drugs,
electronics, lobotomies, etc.); not only would this hide what occurred during
the experimental indoctrination/programming sessions, it would prove useful in
the field. "Amnesia was a big goal," confirms Victor Marchetti, who points out
its usefulness in dealing with contract agents: "After you've done it, the
agent doesn't even know what he's done...you send him in, he does the job.
When he comes out, you clean his head out."[104]
The big problem: Despite hypnotically-induced amnesia, there would be memory
leaks -- snippets of the repressed material would arise spontaneously, in
dreams, as flashbacks, etc. A proposed solution: Give the subject a "screen
memory," a false story; thus, even if he starts to recall the material, he will
recall it incorrectly.
Even the conservative Dr. Orne notes that:
A S [subject] who is able to develop good posthypnotic amnesia
will also respond to suggestions to remember events which did not
actually occur. On awakening, he will fail to recall the real
events of the trance and will instead recall the suggested events.
If anything, this phenomenon is easier to produce than total
amnesia, perhaps because it eliminates the subjective feeling of
an empty space in memory.[105]
Not only would the screen memories fill in the uncomfortable blanks in the
subjects' recollection, they would protect against revelation. One fear of
the MKULTRA scientists was that a hypno-programmed individual used as, say, a
courier, could be un-programmed by another hypnotist, perhaps working for the
enemy. Thus, the MKULTRA scientists decided to instill multiple personalities
-- multiple cover stories, if you will -- to confuse any "unauthorized"
hypnotist.[106]
One case using this technique centered on an assassin named Luis Castillo,
who, after his capture in the Philippines, was extensively de-briefed and
studied by experts in the employ of the National Bureau of Investigation, that
country's equivalent to our FBI. Castillo was discovered to have had at least
FOUR separate personalities hypnotically instilled; each personality could be
triggered by a specific cue. In one state, he claimed to be Sgt. Manuel Angel
Ramirez, of the Strategic Air Tactical Command in South Vietnam; supposedly,
"Ramirez" was the illegitimate son of a certain pipe-smoking, highly-placed CIA
official whose initials were A.D.[107] Another personality claimed to be one
of John F. Kennedy's assassins.
The main hypnotist involved with this case labelled these hypnotic alteregos "Zombie states." The report on the case stated that "The Zombie phenomenon referred to here is a somnambulistic behavior displayed by the subject
in a conditioned response to a series of words, phrases, and statements,
apparently unknown to the subject during his normal waking state."
Upon Castillo's repatriation to the United States, the FBI claimed that he
had fabricated the story. In his book OPERATION MIND CONTROL, Walter Bowart
makes a convincing case against the FBI's claims. Certainly, many aspects of
the Castillo affair argue for his sincerity -- including his hypnoticallyinduced insensitivity to pain[108], his maintenance of the story (or stories)
even when severly inebriated, and his apparently programmed suicide attempts.
If Castillo told the truth, as I believe he did, then he manifested both
-- create amnesia of both the programming sessions and the field assignments,
-- turn Candy into a vicious, hate-mongering bigot, the better to isolate her
from the rest of humanity (previously, her associates considered her
noteworthy for her racial tolerance; her modelling agency was one of the
first to break the color barrier), and
-- program her to commit suicide at the end of her usefulness to the Agency.
The programming techniques used on her were flawed. She breached security
when she married famed New York radio personality John Nebel, who, using
hypnotic regression, elicited the long-repressed truth. Eventually, the
"Other Candy" was bade farewell, and the programming broken.
... I feel that the veracity
of her narrative has been established beyond reasonable doubt. In her hypnotic
regression sessions, she recalled being programmed at a government-connected
institute in northern California -- which, as John Marks' investigators later
proved, was indeed heavily involved with government-funded brainwashing
research[119]. Marks himself believes Candy's story -- not least, because the
details of the programming methods used on her were substantiated by documents
released AFTER her book was published[120]. Interviews with Milton Kline,
Dr. Frances Jakes, John Watkins and others provided the testimony that the
programming of Candy Jones was feasible -- and Deep Trance substantiated the
story[121].
Recently, the case has received important "indirect" confirmation:
Investigators interested in follow-up research have filed FOIA requests with
the CIA for all papers relating to Candy Jones. The agency admits that it has
a substantial file on her, but refuses to release any part of it. If her tale
is false, then why would the CIA be so reluctant to deliver the information?
Indeed, why would they have a file in the first place?[122]
The final confirmation of Candy's tale requires a revelation -- one which I
make with some trepidation, even though the individual named is dead.
"Marshall Burger" was really Dr. William Kroger[123].
Kroger, long associated with the espionage establishment, had written the
following in 1963:
...a good subject can be hypnotized to deliver secret
information. The memory of this message could be covered
by an artificially-induced amnesia. In the event that he
should be captured, he naturally could not remember that he
had ever been given the message...however, since he had
been given a post-hypnotic suggestion, the message would be
subject to recall through a specific cue.[124]
If Candy confabulated her story, why did she name this particualr scientist,
who, writing theoretically in 1963, predicted the subsequent events in her
life?[125]
After L'AFFAIR JONES, Kroger transferred his base of operations to UCLA -specifically, to the Neuropsychiatric Institute run by Dr. Louis Jolyon West,
an MKULTRA veteran. There he wrote HYPNOSIS AND BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION[126],
with a preface by Martin Orne (another MKULTRA veteran) and H.J. Eysenck (still
another MKULTRA veteran). The finale of this opus contains chilling hints
of the possibilites inherent in combining hypnosis with ESB, implants, and
conditioning -- though Kroger is careful to point out that "we are not
concerned that man might be conditioned by rewards and punishments through
electronic brain stimulation to be controlled like robots."[127] HE may not
be concerned -- but perhaps WE ought to be.
... Because the Controllers did not
establish a hypnotic cover story, or pseudomemory, the true facts of the case
managed to percolate into her conscious mind. No matter how thorough the posthypnotic amnesia, leaks will occur -- hence the need for a false memory, to
fill the gap of recollection. The CIA learns from its mistakes. ...
(Milton Kline accepted the Candy Jones story, but considered the job amateurish
and inconsistent with the best work done at that time[133]. Perhaps the major
fault was the lack of a pseudomemory cover story?)
magnetic radioactive discs have long been used by the clandestine services as
cancer-inducing "silent killers" -- i.e., as tools of assassination.
THE MILITARY AND MIND CONTROL
Some time ago, I attended hypnotic regression sessions in which the
subject ... recalled undergoing a mysterious "brain operation" at a veteran's
hospital in California. ... this same hospital was mentioned in two other
cases I encountered.
One of these claimants, a former Navy SEAL who undertook numerous dangerous
missions in Vietnam, favorably impressed me with the wealth of detail in his
story[147]. This individual -- I've taken to calling him "the trained SEAL"-had received specialized combat training at a military base in California; he
claims that at one point during this training he was drugged, hypnotized,
possibly placed under some form of electronic control, and subjected to the
extremes of pain/pleasure operant conditioning. One peculiar detail of his
story concerns the "reward" aspect of the conditioning: When properly
acquiescent, he was given unlimited sexual access to a woman who, the SEAL
avers, was herself the victim of brainwashing.
Unbelievable as this last claim may seem, I found it oddly resonant when I
later interviewed a [Southern California woman], who
bravely offered me details on a puzzling, albeit quite delicate, incident in
her past. Still an attractive woman, she recalled for me -- indeed, seemed
strangely compelled to describe -- an early love affair with a young soldier
training at a military base near her home. She cannot recall the soldier's
name. All she remembers is that one day he started LIVING AT HER FAMILY'S
HOUSE; she has no memory of how the arrangement began, and her parents have
never felt comfortable discussing the matter. Although unattracted to this
soldier, she felt compelled to become intimate with him, adopting a pliant,
obeisant attitude that was quite out of character for her. Later, the soldier
went on to covert missions in Vietnam.
Of course, a young person's psycho-sexual development is never smooth, and
the incident related above may merely have represented one peculiarly upsetting
bump in that notoriously rough road. Still, some of the details of this story
-- particularly the parents' attitude, the woman's personality shift, and her
subsequent memory lapses -- are striking, and I treat with respect [her] intuiti
on that this minor enigma in her personal history could, if
properly understood, shed light on her later "missing time" experiences.
Could the "trained SEAL" have been right? Was there, IS there, a coterie
of hypno-programmed soldiers conducting particularly hazardous missions? And
do the programmers have at their disposal a "ladies' auxiliary," so to speak,
of hypnotized camp followers?
If the SEAL's story stood alone, skeptics could easily dismiss it
(provided they did not sit, as I did, face-to-face with the story's teller,
listening to all the grisly and unsettling details). But other veterans have
added their voices to this grim tale. Daniel Sheehan, of the Christic
Institute, claims that his organization has spoken to half-a-dozen individuals
with narratives similar to my SEAL informant. All had received "processing,"
so to speak, within the context of standard military training; after programming and specialized combat instruction by mercenaries, the recruits were
placed "on hold," to be used as situations arose -- and some of those
situations occurred within the United States[148].
Walter Bowart began his own researches into mind control by placing an ad in
SOLDIER-OF-FORTUNE-style publications, asking for correspondence from veterans
who experienced inexplicable lapses in memory or strange behavior modification
techniques while serving in Vietnam; he received over 100 replies. Bowart
devoted an entire chapter to one of these respondents -- an Air Force veteran
named David, who ended his four-year tour of duty recalling only that he had
spent the time "having fun, skin diving, laying on the beach, collecting
shells...It never dawned on me until later that I must have DONE something
while I was in the service." (An obvious example of screen memory.) He was
also "assigned" a girlfriend whose name he cannot now recall, despite the
tional" battlefield -- as will the nation which first develops a means of using
mass mind control techniques to disable entire enemy platoons. [And to placate
whole civilian populations, both those of the enemy and those at home. -jpg]
This paramount military necessity is the reason why I will never believe any
unconvincing reassurances that our nation's clandestine scientists have foregone or will forego research into behavior modification. This research will
never be mere history. What's past is present, and today's covert experimentation will become tomorrow's basic training.
A prototype of the future warrior may already be with us. The Navy SEAL
I interviewed spoke in horrifying detail of dismemberment without emotion, of
rape as routine, of killing without affect. And then FORGETTING THAT HE HAD
KILLED. Even years later, he could not recall the stories behind many of the
wounds on his own body. He claims that whenever he would need the services of
the veteran's hospital, doctors would re-hypnotize him shortly after his
admission, while a physician specifically cleared for such work would examine
his medical history, which was highly classified and kept under lock and key.
According to the SEAL's testimony, his memory block cracked little by
little, as a result of events too complex to recount here. Finally, years
after Vietnam, he was able to remember what he did.
Amnesia was a blessing.
A spectre haunts the democratic nations -- the spectre of TECHNOFASCISM.
All the powers of the espionage empire and the scientific establishment have
entered into an unholy alliance to evoke this spectre: Psychiatrist and spy,
Dulles and Delgado, microwave specialists and clandestine operators.
A mind is a terrible thing to waste -- and a worse thing to commandeer.
NOTES
5. See bibliography.
6. New York: Bantam Books, 1979.
7. See generally PROJECT MKULTRA, THE CIA'S PROGRAM OF RESEARCH IN
BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, joint hearing before the Select Committee on Health and
Scientific Research of the Committee on Human Resources, Unites States Senate
(Washington: Government Printing Office, 1977).
8. Robert Eringer, "Secret Agent Man," ROLLING STONE, 1985.
9. John Marks interview with Victor Marchetti (Marks files, available at
the National Security Archives, Washington, D.C.).
10. In an interview with John Marks, hypnosis expert Milton Kline, a
veteran of clandestine experimentation in this field, averred that his work
for the government continued. Since the interview took place in 1977, years
after the CIA allegedly halted mind control research, we must conclude either
that the CIA lied, or that another agency continued the work. In another
interview with Marks, former Air Force-CIA liaison L. Fletcher Prouty confirmed that the Department of Defense ran studies either in conjunction with
or parallel to those operated by the CIA. (Marks files.)
12. A copy of this letter can be found in the Marks files.
13. Estabrooks attracted an eclectic group of friends, including J.
Edgar Hoover and Alan Watts.
14. Interview with daughter Doreen Estabrooks, Marks files, Washington,
D.C.
15. Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain, ACID DREAMS (New York: Grove Press,
1985) 3-4; Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", 6-8
16. Marks, ibid. 4-6.
17. Edward Hunter, BRAINWASHING IN RED CHINA (New York: Vanguard Press,
1951.). Hunter invented the term "brainwashing" in a September 24, 1950 Miami
NEWS article.
18. "Japan's Germ Warfare Experiments," THE GLOBE AND MAIL (Toronto),
May 19, 1982.
19. Walter Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL (New York: Dell, 1978), 191-2,
quoting Warren Commission documents. We cannot fairly derive from this statement a sanguine attitude about PRESENT Soviet capabilities; in this field,
even outdated technology suffices for mischief.
20. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", 60-61. A folk
entymology has it that the "MK" of MKULTRA stands for "Mind Kontrol." According to Marks, TSS prefixed the cryptonyms of all its projects with these
initials. Note, though, that MKULTRA was preceded by a still-mysterious TSS
program called QKHILLTOP.
21. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", 224-229. Seven
MKULTRA subprojects were continued, under TSS supervision, as MKSEARCH. This
project ended in 1972. CIA apologists often proclaim that "brainwashing"
research ceased in either 1962 or 1972; these blandishments refer to the TSS
projects, not to the ORD work, which remains TERRA INCOGNITA for independent
researchers. Marks discovered that the ORD research was so voluminous that
retrieving documents via FOIA would have proven unthinkably expensive.
22. For a description of the research into parapsychology, see Ronald
M. McRae's MIND WARS (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1984). The best book
available on a subject which awaits a truly authoritative text.
24. Allegedly, the experiment took place in 1964. However, in WERE WE
CONTROLLED? (New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1967), the pseudonymous
"Lincoln Lawrence" makes an interesting argument (on page 36) that the
demonstration took place some years earlier.
25. New York: Harper and Row, 1969. Much of Delgado's work was funded
by the Office of Naval Intelligence, a common conduit for CIA funds during the
1950s and '60s. (Gordon Thomas' JOURNEY INTO MADNESS (New York: Bantam, 1989)
misleadingly implies that CIA interest in Delgado's work began in 1972.)
26. J.M.R. Delgado. "Intracerebral Radio Stimulation and Recording
in Completely Free Patients," PSYCHOTECHNOLOGY (Robert L. Schwitzgebel and
Ralph K. Schwitzgebel, editors; New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973):
195.
27. David Krech, "Controlling the Mind Controllers," THINK 32 (JulyAugust), 1966.
28. Delgado, PHYSICAL CONTROL OF THE MIND
29. Delgado, "Intracerebral Radio Stimulation and Recording in Completely
free patients," 195.
31. John Ranleigh, THE AGENCY (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1986): 208.
Marchetti casts this story in the form of an amusing anecdote: After much time
and expense, a cat was suitably trained and prepared -- only, on its first
assignment, to be run over by a taxi. Marchetti neglects to point out that
nothing stopped the Agency from getting another cat. Or from using a human
being.
33. Alan W. Scheflin and Edward M. Opton, Jr., THE MIND MANIPULATORS
(London: Paddington Press, 1978), 347.
34. Thomas, JOURNAY INTO MADNESS, 276.
35. James Olds, "Hypothalamic Substrates of Reward," PHYSIOLOGICAL
REVIEWS, 1962, 42:554; "Emotional Centers in the Brain," SCIENCE JOURNAL,
1967, 3 (5).
36. Vernon Mark and Frank Ervin, VIOLENCE AND THE BRAIN (New York:
Harper and Row, 1970), chapter 12, excerpted in INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND THE
FEDERAL ROLE IN BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION, prepared by the Staff of the Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights of the Committee of the Judiciary, United
States Senate (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1974).
37. John Lilly, THE SCIENTIST (Berkeley, Ronin Publishing, 1988 [revised
edition]), 90. Monkeys allowed to stimulate themselves continually via ESB
brought themselves to orgasm once every three minutes, sixteen hours a day.
Scientific gatherings throughout the world saw motion pictures of these
experiments, which surely made spectacular cinema.
38. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 336-337. Heath even
monitored his patient's brain responses during the subject's first heterosexual
encounter. Such is the nature of the brave new world before us.
39. Robert L. Schwitzgebel and Richard M. Bird, "Sociotechnical Design
Factors in Remote Instrumentation with Humans in Natural Environments,"
BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS AND INSTRUMENTATION, 1970, 2, 99-105.
40. Thomas, JOURNEY INTO MADNESS, 277. In the BEHAVIOR RESEARCH METHODS
AND INSTRUMENTATION article referenced above, Schwitzgebel details how the
radio signals may be fed into a telephone via a modem and thus analyzed by a
computer anywhere in the world.
41. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 347-349.
42. Louis Tackwood and the Citizen's Research and Investigation Committee, THE GLASS HOUSE TAPES (New York: Avon, 1973), 226.
43. Perry London, BEHAVIOR CONTROL (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), 145
44. Scheflin and Opton, THE MIND MANIPULATORS, 351-353; Tackwood, THE
GLASS HOUSE TAPES, 228.
45. "Beepers in kids' heads could stop abductors," Las Vegas SUN, Oct.
27, 1987.
46. Lilly, THE SCIENTIST, 91.
47. Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", 151-154.
49. The story of Deep Trance, an MKULTRA "insider" who provided
invaluable information, is somewhat involved. I do not know who Trance is/was
and Marks may not know either. He contacted Trance via the writer of an
article published shortly before research on THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN
CANDIDATE" began, addressing his informant "Dear Source whose anonymity I
respect." I respect it too -- hence my reticence to name the aforementioned
article, which may mark a trail to Trance. The fact that I have not followed
this trail would not prevent others from doing so. [And if Trance were a
CIA disinformation source a la William Cooper, this is precisely the behavior
they would count on. -jpg]
50. London, BEHAVIOR CONTROL, 139.
52. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 36-37; Anita Gregory, "Introduction
to Leonid L. Vasilev's EXPERIMENTS IN DISTANT INFLUENCE," PSYCHIC WARFARE:
FACT OR FICTION (editor: John White) (Nottinghamshire: Aquarian, 1988) 34-57.
53. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 38.
54. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 261-264.
55. Ibid. 263.
56. Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 52.
57. HUMAN DRUG TESTING BY THE CIA, 202.
58. Note especially the Supreme Court's decision in CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE
AGENCY ET Al. V. SIMS, ET AL. (No. 83-1075; decided April 16, 1986). The
egregious and dangerous majority opinion in this case held that disclosure of
the names of scientists and institutions involved in MKULTRA posed an
"unacceptable risk of revealing 'intelligence sources.' The decisions of the
[CIA] Director, who must of course be familiar with 'the whole picture,' as
judges are not, are worthy of great deference...it is conceivable that the
mere explanation of why information must be withheld can convey valuable
information to a foreign intelligence agency." How do we square this continuing need for secrecy with the CIA's protestations that MKULTRA achieved little
success, that the studies were conducted within the Nueremberg statues governing medical experiments, and that the research was made available in the open
literature?
59. Letter, P.A. Lindstrom to Robert Naeslund, July 27, 1983; copy
available from Martti Koski, Kiilinpellontie 2, 21290 Rusko, Finland. Lindstrom writes that he fully agrees with Lincoln Lawrence, author of WERE WE
CONTROLLED?
60. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 265. I have attempted without
success to contact Dr. Lindstrom.
61. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 233-249. This interview was
repinted without attribution in a bizarre compendium of UFO rumors called
THE MATRIX, compiled by "Valdamar Valerian" (actually John Grace, allegedly
a captain working for Air Force intelligence).
62. Robert Anton Wilson, "Adventures with Head Hardware," MAGICAL BLEND,
23 [of course], July 1989.
63. Michael Hutchison, MEGA BRAIN (New York: Ballantine, 1986); Gerald
Oster, "Auditory Beats in the Brain," SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, September, 1973.
64. Marilyn Ferguson, THE BRAIN REVOLUTION (New York: Taplinger, 1973),
90.
65. Ibid., 91-92. The presence of delta in a waking subject can
indicate pathology.
66. Bio-Pacer promotional and price sheet, available from Lindemann
Laboratories, 3463 State Street, #264, Santa Barbara, CA 93105.
67. Hutchison, MEGA BRAIN, 117-118. Compare Light's observations about
"the grant game" to Sid Gottlieb's protestations that nearly all "mind control" research was openly published.
68. Thomas Martinez and John Gunther, THE BROTHERHOOD OF MURDER (New
York: McGraw-Hill, 1988), 230.
69. Interview, Sandy Monroe of the Los Angeles office of the Christic
Institute.
70. See generally Paul Brodeur, THE ZAPPING OF AMERICA (Toronto, George
J. MacLeod, 1977).
71. Until recently, the American Embassy was on a street named after the
composer.
72. It was finally determined that the microwaves were used to receive
transmissions from bugs planted within the embassy. DARPA director George H.
Heimeier went on record stating that PANDORA was never designed to study
"microwaves as a surveillance tool." See Anne Keeler, "Remote Mind Control
Technology," FULL DISCLOSURE #15. I would note that the Soviet embassy was
"bugged and waved" in Canada during the 1950s, and according to the Los
Angeles TIMES (June 5, 1989), the Soviet embassy in Britain had been similarly
affected.
73. Ronald I. Adams R.A. Williams, BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF ELECTROMAGNETIC
RADIATION (RADIOWAVES AND MICROWAVES) EURASIAN COMMUNIST COUNTRIES, (Defense
Intelligence Agency, March 1976.) Brodeur notes that much of the work ascribed
to the Soviets in this report was actually first accomplished by scientists in
the United States. Keeler argues that this report constitutes an example of
"mirror imaging" -- i.e., parading domestic advances as a foreign threat, the
better to pry funding from a suitably-fearful Congress.
74. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
75. R.J. MacGregor, "A Brief Survey of Literature Relating to Influence
of Low Intensity Microwaves on Nervous Function" (Santa Monica: RAND Corporation, 1970).
76. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
77. Larry Collins, "Mind Control," PLAYBOY, January 1990.
78. Allan H. Frey, "Behavioral Effects of Electromagnetic Energy,"
SYMPOSIUM ON BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS AND MEASUREMENTS OF RADIO FREQUENCIES/MICROWAVES, DeWitt G. Hazzard, editor (U.S. Department of Health, Education and
Welfare, 1977).
79. quoted in THE APPLICATION OF TESLA'S TECHNOLOGY IN TODAY'S WORLD
(Montreal: Lafferty, Hardwood & Partners, Ltd., 1978).
80. Keeler, "Remote Mind Control Technology."
81. L. George Lawrence, "Electronics and Brain Control," POPULAR
ELECTRONICS, July 1973.
82. Susan Schiefelbein, "The Invisible Threat," SATURDAY REVIEW,
September 15, 1979.
83. E. Preston, "Studies on the Nervous System, Cardiovascular Function
and Thermoregulation," BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF RADIO FREQUENCY AND MICROWAVE
RADIATION, edited by H.M. Assenheim (Ottawa, Canada: National Research Council
of Canada, 1979), 138-141.
84. Robert O. Becker, THE BODY ELECTRIC (New York: William Morrow, 1985)
318-319.
85. Ibid.
86. Ibid., 321.
87. See Bowart's OPERATION MIND CONTROL, page 218, for an interesting
example of this "rationalization" process at work in the case of Sirhan
Sirhan, who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. In
prison, Sirhan was hypnotized by Dr. Bernard Diamond, who instructed Sirhan
to climb the bars of his cage like a monkey. He did so. After the trance
was removed, Sirhan was shown tapes of his actions; he insisted that he "acted
like a monkey" of his own free will -- he claimed he wanted the exercise.
88. Keeler suggests that the proposal was revealed only because
Schapitz' sensationalistic implications may have worked to his discredit -and therefore hide -- the REAL research. Personally, I don't accept this
argument, but I respect Keeler's instincts enough to repeat her caveat here.
89. Margaret Cheney's TESLA: A MAN OUT OF TIME (New York: Dell, 1981),
the most reliable book in the sea of wild speculation surrounding this
extraordinary scientist, confirms Tesla's early work with the psychological
effects of electromagnetic radiation. See especially pages 101-104; note also
the afterword, in which we learn that certain government agencies have kept
important research by Tesla hidden from the general public.
90. Noted in Lawrence, WERE WE CONTROLLED?, 29.
91. Particularly one Thomas Bearden of Huntsville, Alabama; I have in my
possession a document written by Bearden associate Andrew Michrowski which
identifies Bearden as an intelligence agent for an undisclosed agency.
92. Kathleen McAuliffe, "The Mind Fields," OMNI magazine, February 1985.
93. May 5, 1985.
94. I refer to an individual who later wrote a very clear-headed and
thoughtful letter to Dr. Paul Lowinger, who has graciously made his files
available to me. For now, I feel compelled to withhold this person's name.
95. Cameron became president of the American Psychiatric Association,
the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and the World Association of Psychiatrists, He previously sat on the Nueremberg panel, helping to draw up the
statutes governing ethical medical behavior!
96. In particular, Opton and Scheflin's overview, though excellent in
scope and detail, continually seeks reassurring interpretations of evidence
which points toward more distressing conclusions.
97. Martin T. Orne, "Can a hypnotized subject be compelled to carry out
otherwise unacceptable behavior?" INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS, 1972, Vol. 20, 101-117.
98. Marks mentions, in a letter to Orne, the latter's claim to have been
an unwitting participant in subproject 84. Yet the papers released concerning
subproject 84 clearly establish the Agency's willingness to put Orne in the
know; Orne later admitted to Marks that he was made aware of his CIA sponsorship (Marks, THE SEARCH FOR "THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE", 172-173). In an
interview with Marks, Orne discounted the story of Candy Jones (which we shall
recount later) by insisting that if such an experiment had occurred "someone
in some agency would have come to me." Why would they come to him about a
super-secret project, unless Orne had a high security clearance and worked
extensively with intelligence agencies? Note also that Orne conducted extensive studies for the Office of Naval Research from June 1, 1968 to May 31,
1971. He has also been funded by DARPA. Moreover, I consider noteworthy the
fact that Orne somehow became president of the Society for Clinical and
Experimental Hypnosis despite the fact that the organization had decided not
to have a president. (This fact was related to Marks by a prominent hypnosis
specialist in an off-the-record interview that I probably wasn't supposed to
see.)
99. The story has been told many times. See Turner and Christian's THE
KILLING OF ROBERT F. KENNEDY, 207-208; also Peter J. Reiter, ANTISOCIAL OR
CRIMINAL ACTS AND HYPNOSIS (Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas, 1958).
100. John G. Watkins, "Antisocial behavior under hypnosis: Possible or
impossible?" INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL FOR CLINICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL HYPNOSIS,
1972, Vol. 20, 95-100.
101. Milton H. Erickson, "An experimental investigation of the possible
anti-social use of hypnosis," PSYCHIATRY, 1939, vol. 2. Erickson argues that
if a hypnotist has convinced his subject to misperceive reality, then resulting actions cannot be considered "anti-social," for the actions would be
and respectful consideration. Still, Moseley won't identify his source, and
we have no way of telling if this insider spoke from instinct or certain
knowledge, or indeed, what he really meant. Did he feel Candy was fantasizing
or fibbing? If the former, why did her hallucinations match details of
MKULTRA released only after publication of her book? If the latter, how are
we to explain the many hypnotic regression tapes, at least some of which were
made available to outside investigators? (Fairly elaborate, for a hoax.) In
any case, how could Candy have known the fact (confirmed by Marks' associates)
that Kroger taught "Jensen" at a certain West-coast institute? Why, if the
story was "a crock," would Candy risk libel suits by naming -- to associates
and investigators, if not to the general public -- real-life hypnotherapists?
All in all, I would suggest that Moseley's "insider" was speaking glibly, and
did not know the true facts. [Or was speaking disinformationally. -jpg]
126. Philadelphia, Lippincott, 1976.
127. Ibid., 415.
133. John Marks interview with Milton Kline, December 22, 1977 (Marks
files).
138. Some have also raised questions about his psychiatric treatment
of Oswald assassin Jack Ruby. I find it odd that a CIA mind control veteran
-- who did NOT reside or practice in Dallas -- should have been assigned to the
Ruby case.
143. Chung-Kwang Chou and Arthur W. Guy, "Quantization of Microwave
Biological Effects," SYMPOSIUM OF BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS AND MEASUREMENT OF RADIO
FREQUENCY/MICROWAVES, edited by Dewitt G. Hazzard (U.S. Department of Health,
Education and Welfare, 1977).
144. MIAMI HERALD, May 28, 1984 and June 6, 1984 ...
145. Los Angeles TIMES, March 28, 1988.
147. A mutual friend described for me an incident in which the former
SEAL, mistakenly perceiving a threat, almost instantly felled, and nearly
killed, a man twice his size. Whatever the truth of my informant's other
statements, he certainly has received advanced combat training.
148. Fenton Bresler, WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON? (New York: St. Martin's
Press, 1989), 45-46.
149. Bowart, OPERATION MIND CONTROL, 27-42.
150. Denise Winn, THE MANIPULATED MIND (London, Octagon Press, 1983),
72-73; Bresler, WHO KILLED JOHN LENNON?, 41; see generally: Peter Watson,
WAR ON THE MIND (London: Hutchison, 1978) (Watson broke the story on Narut
for the London TIMES).
151. Larry Collins, "Mind Control," PLAYBOY, January 1990.
152. John Marks interview with Milton Kline, December 22, 1977 (Marks
files).
153. Richard A. Gabriel, NO MORE HEROES (New York: Hill and Wang, 1987),
124.
154. Ibid., 150-151.
155. See generally: Mark Lane, CONVERSATIONS WITH AMERICANS (Simon and
Shuster, 1970); A.J. Langguth, HIDDEN TERRORS (New York: Pantheon, 1978).
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY ON MIND CONTROL
ACID DREAMS, by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain (Grove, 1985). Outstanding
work on MKULTRA and drugs.
THE BODY ELECTRIC, by Robert Becker (Morrow, 1985). Important.
THE BRAIN CHANGERS, by Maya Pines (Signet, 1973). Outdated, but an excellent
chapter on the stimoceiver and related technologies.
BRAIN CONTROL, by Elliot Valenstein (John Wiley and Sons, 1973). Highly
conservative; outdated; still worth reading.
CIA PAPERS, compiled by Capitol Information Associates (POB 8275, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, 48107). Interesting selection of MKULTRA documents.
THE CONTROL OF CANDY JONES, by Donald Bain (Playboy Press, 1976). Mandatory
reading.
HUMAN DRUG TESTING BY THE CIA, hearings before the Subcommittee on Health and
Scientific Research on the Committee on Human Resources, United States